In 1926 Theodor Tagger, writing under the pseudonym Ferdinand Bruckner, was acclaimed for the play Krankheit der Jugend (Sickness of Youth). It was at once Tagger's first great success as a dramatist and the beginning of a new career as Bruckner. Ferdinand Bruckner, who never again wrote under his real name, would go on to become one of the most prominent playwrights of the Weimar Republic. In taking his pen name from the playwright Ferdinand Raimund and the composer Anton Bruckner, Tagger was paying homage to both Austrian drama and Austrian music.

Theodor Tagger was born on 26 August 1891 in Sofia, in present-day Bulgaria, to a French mother and an Austrian father. His parents, who had been living in Constantinople, were on their way to Vienna at the time of his birth. The future playwright's childhood was not a happy one. His father was a businessman and a pragmatist, very...